Jam session

Hopefully this works. I helped my buddy Sam with his final recording project and this was one of our jams. I'm playing drums, Sam's on piano and his friend Thomas from Berklee is playing guitar.

Around the 1:50 mark is Sam's favorite part and I must say it is pretty cool.

Also, Sam believes I have awesome tom fills so he turned up the tom levels so they'd be more pronounced.

Ok, the first time I couldn't get it up, so I made it in a video because that's easier to post.

Hiking Trip

From left to right: John, Brother Joe, Me, Alicia









Nick and Cassidy








Left to Right: Nick, Cassidy, Kat, John, Allison, Parker







View from about halfway up the Marlboro Trail

Skadoosh

That was the title of our retreat. It is taken from the movie Kung Fu Panda and thus I do not see the relevance. Oh well.

Anyways, the retreat started on Friday. We all got to the catholic Center for some pizza and soda before we headed out. The retreat was at St. Thecla's retreat house in Billerica, about a mile down the road from Mary's. So because I claimed to know the area, I was the navigator for our mini-van. Parker, the brother in training, was driving. Well, he just came up here this fall and has never driven on the Mass Pike, and hes from Florida and has never seen a toll booth, and he didn't really know where we were going... The fact that we didn't die is proof enough of God's love for me.

Well we got there without any major incidents and moved our stuff in. We all had individual rooms though they were more like cells. We all hung around for a bit, played ping-pong and goofed off. We played an ice breaker game where everyone has a balloon tied to their leg and the last one standing wins. I won because I'm amazing. We then had our first talk. Brother Brandon (from the catholic center) gave a talk about constantly climbing... I probably missed the main point because I always struggle with paying attention to talks and such. We then had a witness by one of the girls. Again, I don't remember much. We then broke up into small groups to discuss what was talked about and such. This is the part I always love because it truly allows you to get to know people on a very deep level in a very short period of time. There was a lot of music thrown in throughout all of this as well. We then had free time to just hang out and get to know each other. This involved lots of ping pong and card games. Eventually everyone called it a night, myself around one, because we knew it would be a long day ahead of us.

More to come later, I'm just lazy right now.

Broomball

I just started playing Inter mural Broomball with some of the girls on the floor and some of ther other friends. We had our first game last night. We lost... It was unfortunate, but very fun none the less. Its all in good fun anyways and I didn't mind that much, since I didn't expect our team to do very well anyways. Our goalie, Steph, had never played goalie for anything before. Also, she had never been on ice before... I don't know how thats possible considering she's from Sandwich, but whatever. I think we wound up losing like 6-2, I didn't pay to much attention to the score. I played center the whole time and feel I managed to get the best out of my line. Our line scored one of our goals and we only allowed 2 goals while we were on the ice. Being the top line center is always fun. We definitely have some things we need to work on, but there was some very promising results as well. I managed to win every face off I took, and i realized that it is very easy to gain possesion of the ball and drive to the net as long as your willing to slide about a bit and run right through the other teams defense (which is generally the girls on the other team). All and all it was fun and we went out to eat after.

Our friend Rocky Slaughter (thats his real name) is a photographer and he came and got some great shots so hopefully I can get those up soon.

I can't wait now for next weeks game.

Proof that the economy will survive

I have discovered the proof that the economy will make it through this rough stretch.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/81526/Goodbye-1-Billion-Salary-Hello-Campbell-Soup

Jet Skiing

Spent a good amount of this weekend Jet Skiing. It was totally freakin awesome. I had so much fun doing. The only bad part was when i tried using a stand up jet ski and I managed to slam my face on it... oh well. I then decided to do some tubing, and that proved to be a mistake. As I was sitting in the tube and we were going about 45mph, I was tossed from the tube, flipped backwards, and slammed face first into the water. When I got home I saw that my nose was pink and purple and a little swollen and hurt when I move my head... Broken? Maybe. Worth it? Definitely...

Keep enjoying summer

What follows is a list of ten things that you don't need to worry about during the summer so try to relax while it lasts...


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29tier.html?no_interstitial

Worms can do calculus?

I just found this article, apparently round worms do calculus to find food or some crazy shit like that... Its really weird, read it. Apparently even worms can do advanced mathematics better than I can...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/wormsdocalculustofindfood

Now if you'll excuse me, i think I'm gonna have to kill myself...

CIWWAF

The new Cute Is What We Aim For CD is out and I love it. It really is a band that aims at high school and college aged kids by singing about stuff that happens in most of our social lives. This naturally makes it more difficult for them to become mainstream and for adults to really get into it but if you wanna hear some outrageous and funny sexual innuendos and general commentary on the life of an average high school/college aged kid you should really listen to them. This stuff is all very real and all of their songs feel like they could have been written during a week of school by simply writing down what everyone was talking about.

Great stuff

I'll try to remember I have this and post stuff more often

College kids know nothing about St. Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17th. The St. Patrick's Day parade in Southie takes place on the sunday around that time, though not necesarily on that date. Well many people, myself included, dressed in green the whole weekend. One problem with that though... I was one of the few dressed in green ON St. Patrick's day. Kids kept giving me strange looks on that monday. They inquired if I knew that it was over already. I would then have to explain their own ignorance to them about how St. Patrick's day is the 17th, but they wouldn't listen. "Why would they hold the parade on sunday if the holiday was monday?" they would ask. I didn't even bother trying to explain at that point. I simply shrugged, walked away, and kept happy with the knowledge that at least I myself know a little bit about my own heritage even if the rest of the world uses it as an excuse to be loud, drunk and annoying for a weekend...


I hate stupid people...

Of course, the worst is, this year, St. Patrick's was moved to the 14th this year by the Roman Catholic Church so it wouldn't fall during Holy Week, but apparently none of us got the memo.

Virgina Trip, Final Day

Well, onm sunday we were going to return home. This was a problem though because daylight savings was that day. Well, me and Nate didn't get our wake up call. We got a call at 9 (the time we were supposed to leave) that we were going to miss the bus(they wouldnt actually leave without us but scare tactics can be effective). Well Nate was freaking out. I had packed the night before though, so I simply tried to calm him down and help him pack.

Needless to say, we made it to the bus, no problems. We then proceeded on our 11 hour bus ride home. We watched Live Free or Die Hard, Rounders, and Knocked Up on the way back. We arrived back in Boston and that was it. Our long journey home completed, I proceeded back to my dorm room quite pleased to know that I will not have to take a bus ride like that again for quite sometime.

Virgina Trip Day 3

So I've been lazy but here's how the rest of my trip went.

We woke up saturday morning around 11. Most of the pep band (myself included) went out to take a tour of a brewery(not my idea). We first went the wrong way. We then had to cross a giant bridge... it was extremely long, and windy, and I felt quite sure that I would never see again after all the sand that was blown into my eyes.

We made it across the bridge and to the brewery just as it started to rain. We headed downstairs for the tour. It was actually pretty interesting to see how it is made. Very scientific and in truth, I didn't understand half of what was said. They also let us taste the barley that they use to make it with, and suffice to say, it taste disgusting and it is a taste that is hard to get out of your mouth.

We then went back upstairs and had lunch. We also watched as the wind knocked down a near by electrical wire and the Pub briefly lost electricity. We then traversed back across the bridge to return to the hotel. We proceeded to go swimming in the pool for a while then ate dinner. We headed over to the Coliseaum and waited for our game.

We proceeded to lose to George Mason, the eventual winners.

We returned to the hotel and called it a night.

Virgina Trip, Day 2

Friday

Me and Nate woke up around noon and went out with his friend Daniel who is from the area. We got lunch at the Galaxy Diner. Every meal came with a deep fried pickle... It was weird, yet amazing at the same time. My burger had some many different things on it that I didn't actually know what I was drinking and my soda was so huge, that I didn't need a refill. We then proceeded to wander around Cary Street, which is kinda like Newbury Street here in Boston. Me and Nate got a lot of funny looks because we were in shorts and T-shirts because in Virgina, 50 is cold, but to us, it was more than warm enough.

At some point along our travels, Nate lost his phone. They dropped me off back at the hotel and then went to look for it. A little while later, I was informed by the NU Athletics person with us that Nate's phone had been found at the restaurant. I called Daniel to let them know. They get there... wrong place... Nate's brother had taken the message and told us, but it wasn't the Diner, it was a restaurant at the mall we had stopped at on the way back... Nate was not happy with his brother. Nate decided to just go get his phone the next day.

We all then headed over to the Ale House where we were going to have our pregame meal. We were all stuffed in a small room in the basement area. We ate and played darts for a while. Me and Brandon, one of the trumpet players, beat everyone and were crowned champions. (Well, I decided we were champions...) We then headed over to the Richmond coliseum for the game.

We got there early and watched Delaware beat Drexel. We then proceeded to beat James Madison in a game where we dominated most of the game, and while there were a few close points, I felt confident the whole time that we had the game.

We returned to the hotel and proceeded to play card games (hearts and rummy mostly) until we all decided to call it quits and go to bed.

Virginia Trip- Day One

On Thursday I arrived back at Northeastern at 4:00 PM to get ready to travel with the NU pep band to Richmond for the CAA Basketball tournament. The bus left here at 5:00 PM. We watched Superbad, Super Troopers, and Transformers on the way down. We made a few stops. We arrived at our hotel shortly before 4:00 AM on Friday. Me and my friend Nate proceeded to our room and went to sleep.

Not the most exciting way to start a trip. It was an 11 hour bus ride, but I survived.

Is Hell exothermic or endothermic?

> HELL EXPLAINED BY A CHEMESTRY STUDENT
>
> The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
> chemistry mid term.
>
> The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared
> it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now
> have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :
>
> Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
> (absorbs heat)?
> Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law
> (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some
> variant.
>
> One student, however, wrote the following:
> First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we
> need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate
> at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once
> a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are
> leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the
different
> religions that exist in the world today.
>
> Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their
> religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these
> religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we
can
> project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they
> are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase
exponentially.
> Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because
> Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in
Hell to
> stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as
> souls are added.
>
> This gives two possibilities:
>
> 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls
> enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase
> until all Hell breaks loose.
>
> 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in
> Hell,then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes
> over.
>
> So which is it?
>
> If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman
> year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and
> take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then
number
> two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has
> already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell
has
> frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is
> therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the
> existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept
> shouting "Oh my God."
>
> THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+

Up All Night

I decided to change the name of my blog.

COUNTING CROWS
"Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes To Hollywood)"
Is everybody happy now?
Is everybody clear?
We could drive out to the dunes tonight,
'cause summer's almost here.
And I've been up all night,
I might sleep all day.
Get your dreams just right
Let them slip away,
I might sleep all day.
When the roads are clear,
We'll head on out of here,
If you're coming back,
I'll see you in the morning
I'm just staring at
the ceiling staring back at me,
Just waiting for the daylight to come crawling in on me...
And I've been up all night,
I might sleep all day.
Get your dreams just right
And let them slip away,
I might sleep all day.
Ohhh...It's too late to get high now.
[2X]
fix your hair just right
Put your jeans on tight,
Wear a dress, so I can get it off real easy.
'Cause I've been thinking I'd
like to see your eyes
open up real wide the minute that you see me.
If you don't come through,
I wouldn't wait for you.
I understand that everyone goes disappearing,
into the greatest grey
that covers over everyday,
and hovers in the distance and the distance and the distance...
I've been up all night,
I might sleep all day.
Get your dreams just right
let them slip away,
I might sleep all day.
Ohh...It's too late to get high now.
[2X]
Baby I'm not alone
only wanna get high

I hate coke-heads

So my roommate and myself were hungry last night around midnight so we decided to walk down to Cappy's, a sub shop just off campus.

Afterwards, as we were walking back, we ran into a man calling himself the One-Armed Push Up Man. He had to arms but does one armed push ups for money. We were a bit skeptical at first, but he asked everyone who walked by who he was and they all knew him and my roommate had heard of him. We walked with him only because he was heading in the same direction we were. the more we talked to him though the more sure we became that he was not only drunk but probably on cocaine as well. We just wanted him to do his push ups and leave but he kept babbling on and on and on and he kept repeating himself. Also, he kept staring at every girl who walked by. Well he finally did his push ups and still wouldn't let us leave so my roommate handed him and ten and then we bolted.

There was a girl standing outside our building on her cell phone and I told her about the strange guy and so she went inside with us. As we started to walk she realized I was in her ethics class and said that was a very ethical thing to do, which we both found to be quite amusing.

I then talked to me R.A. about what happened and he knew who I was talking about and seemed to think he was harmless. He then gave me the NUPD's non-emergency number saying that I could report it if it would make me feel better. I called the police and let them know. They were also very familiar with the One-Armed Push Up Man and said they'd send out a cruiser to find him and make sure he wasn't up to anything.

Man, the people you meet.

RIP Heath Ledger

http://omg.yahoo.com/heath-ledger-found-dead-in-nyc-at-age-28/news/5904

In case you haven't heard, actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his apartment.

I don't know if anyone else was a fan of his, but I was. I especially loved his role in A Knight's Tale and in The Patriot. I am saddened by his passing. He also was playing the part of The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie starring across from Christian Bale. I've heard that his performance is phenomenal and terrifying. It will be a must see, though probably to scary for mom.

This is a very sad moment because he was an incredible actor who was still very much in his prime. If you have never seen a movie that he was in I suggest going out and renting A Knight's Tale or the Patriot.

Of course, as Billy Joel so eloquently said, Only the good die young.

Awesome Borders Adventure

So I was bored last night and there was no one online to talk to when I realized that my friend Terri was working at Borders at the time. Well, I decided that I was so bored I would walk there and by a CD or movie to keep me entertained for the night, and of course, annoy Terri for a while. Now, that's a bit of a hike because Borders is quite a ways down Newbury Street, but I was just that bored. Now, if you've been down Newbury Street at night in the winter you know it's awesome. All the trees have lights on them, theres people shopping everywhere, it's just a really cool place to be. So I get to Borders, pickup the movie From Hell starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, an excellent movie, and a Fountains of Wayne CD. I also spent some time annoying Terri. Well when I went down to pay for the CD and DVD a guy comes up to me holding a dog. He then asks me to zip up his jacket with the dog inside. Well, not knowing how to react I simply nodded and did it. I then exchanged a very confused look with the guy at the register as we tried to figure out if that really just happened. Well, it did. The kid at the register then suggested I blog about it, as a joke, but I decided to take that advice to heart because that was the weirdest thing anyone has ever asked me to do.

Man, don't ya just love Boston.

Sweet Jobs

I now have two sweet work study jobs. The first is working Circulation and Security at the Library. Basically I check peoples IDs when they come in and I check out books for them for only 9 hours a week. The second is as an Office Assistant in RA's office in my dorm hall. I sit here, like I am right now, just waiting for someone who needs help, but the kicker is, I don't help them, I just tell them who to go talk to for help. I'd say I'm living the life.

Street Hockey

I was invited by some kids on my floor to come play street hockey with them. They needed a goalie and wondered if I would do it. They said they had all the gear I needed so I figured why not. It was a three on three game similar to half court basketball. They all shot at my goal but had to clear the ball out before they could try to score. It took some getting used to covering a full sized goal seeing as how I am used to the small goals from gym class. I got the hang of it after a few minutes though the top open corner was a problem for me that I wasn't able to solve at that point. It was difficult, especially since I hadn't done anything physical in a while. They invited me to play with them anytime they play afterwards, since they all hate playing goal.

I'm gonna have to do something about the smell after though...